Conventional relay devices (Wireless Local Area Network router) which relay communications among a plurality of networks such as wired LAN, wireless LAN and WAN have the following two problems when relaying a communication from a communication terminal, which has a wireless LAN connecting function and is brought in from outside, to an arbitrary network or another communication terminal.
The first problem is related to connection settings. As a connection setting method for limiting terminals, which are capable of connecting to a wireless LAN, due to security reasons, there are two methods: one method is to input authentication information to a terminal; and another method is to implement a connection setting operation on both a relay device and a terminal at a right timing.
Input of authentication information is generally troublesome and needs a complex input device provided on the terminal for inputting authentication information including of numerical numbers, letters and the like. On the other hand, in the method for implementing a connection setting operation on both the relay device and the terminal at a right timing, the relay device and the terminal need to be installed at an easy place to operate (see Patent Literature 1). In order to implement a connection setting even though the relay device is installed at a difficult place to reach, such as ceiling, and the terminal has no complex input operation, it is required that a connection setting method enables an easy input operation without operating the relay device.
The second problem is related to security settings including access controls. When a communication terminal brought-in from outside is made to communicate with an arbitrary network or another communication terminal, there is a case of disabling communications with communication terminals or networks out of an original purpose due to security or privacy reasons. In this case, it is required that an access control setting is implemented on the relay device.
Implementation of conventional access control settings requires a work of identifying a terminal for which an access control is desired among terminals connected to the relay device by use of information on the network (IP address, MAC address, or the like) and setting an access control policy therefor. During this work, if the user forgets setting or fails to set, the access control is not implemented, thereby causing a security problem.